Need oxygen, beds or vaccine info? A chatbot can help

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Chatbots power several aspects of our app-based interactions, from finding out where our food is, to checking on returns or replacements when we order a product online. Thanks to conversational AI start-up, Yellow Messenger, chatbots have now begun processing and responding to SOS calls for oxygen cylinders, vaccinations, essential supplies and ICU beds. They’re also being made available free of charge.

Yellow Messenger says it is deploying free chatbots to serve hospitals, non-profit organizations (NGOs) or any service group involved in ongoing COVID emergencies.

“We are working with more than 30 different organizations to help them harness traffic and communications with the help of our chatbots,” says Raghu Ravinutala, Co-Founder and CEO, Yellow Messenger, adding that a large chunk of the company’s chatbots are under development and awaiting deployment.

“We expect volumes of end-user messages and communications to total over 10 million conversations,” Raghu adds, “Every organization we are working with is dealing with a deluge of requests that are presently being handled by humans, including information on vaccinations and finding hospitals. That could soon change.”

‘AI is quicker, more efficient’

The thought process behind deploying chatbots to replace humans while handling COVID-related requests is simply the fact that Artificial Intelligence (AI), Raghu says, is quicker and more efficient.

“The problem we’re facing today is that there are organizations like hospitals that are inundated with requests for beds,” he says, “Getting around that problem can happen when you remove the wait-time that comes with it.”

It is precisely at this juncture that chatbots come into the picture. “AI is good at processing large volumes of inputs and data, and serving users at the same time,” Raghu says, “They can make transactions and process information at the same time. The objective is to save time and quicken processes.”

One of the key result areas of deploying bots lies in locating oxygen cylinders. “Let’s suppose there are one lakh oxygen concentrators available with demand coming in from across over a thousand hospitals across the country,” Raghu explains, “A human being entrusted with the task of deploying cylinders will work on the process sequentially — take calls, check inventories, ship the available oxygen and provide a status update to the hospital in question. All of this takes a lot of time.”

A chatbot in the mix, however, changes things. Processes are executed simultaneously as opposed to sequentially, which means that activities that typically take days can be cut down to a few hours,” Raghu says.

‘Free chatbots till COVID ends’

However, if there’s one activity that humans are undoubtedly better at than AI, it’s that of empathy.

“During times like these, there is no replacement for human emotion when it comes to experiencing and acting on feelings,” Raghu says.

Typically, using Yellow Messenger’s chatbot service for a whole year comes to anywhere between Rs 20 to 35 lakh. That fee is now being waived off with chatbots being offered to COVID emergency information service providers, for free, already notching up half-a-million conversations in the process.

“As long as organizations are using our bots for cases directed at COVID relief and support, we are committed to providing the service for free,” says Raghu, “Once we overcome the crisis, we are happy to discuss a commercial arrangement for these bots, if the need still persists.”

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Telecom associations warn people against telecom tower installation fraud

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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The Telecom Industry Associations (COAI) and Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) have cautioned people against frauds related to the installation of mobile towers on their properties, in a joint statement.

The warning has been issued against certain companies, agencies, or individuals who are fraudulently approaching people and asking them to deposit money in their personal or company accounts for leasing their personal property for the installation of mobile towers, according to a PTI report.

Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) represents the body of telecom service providers and the Tower and Infrastructure Providers Association (TAIPA) represents telecom infrastructure firms.

Fraudulent individuals and dubious firms are also offering fake ”No Objection Certificates” for the installation of towers, the report added.

The joint statement urged people to verify the authenticity of such entities “by visiting the websites of TSPs or IPs before accepting any offers for tower installation”.

People can visit the Department Of Telecommunications’ (DoT) website to see a list of updated and verified TSPs and IPs.

Telecom operators Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea or authorised telecom infrastructure providers do the installation work for mobile towers, the report said quoting COAI Director General S P Kochhar who also urged consumers to establish “the authenticity and bonafide of the people or organisations” approaching them “for tower installation on the website of the related company”.

TAIPA’s director general T R Dua, informed that the mobile towers are installed by the telecom infrastructure providers like Summit Digitel, Indus Towers, American Tower Corporation, Infrastructure and Ascend Telecom, the report added.

Many steps are afoot to caution the general public about the frauds, Dua said, according to the report.

Recently, the COAI had issued a caution urging the people not to click on links that offer free mobile recharge. Fraudsters had generated and shared the link to collect the personal data of the users.

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Reliance Jio Q4 earnings: Expect revenue decline of 3.7%

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Reliance Jio will report its Q4 numbers on Friday and it is expected to be a subdued quarter.

The subscriber addition for the company has been muted for the last couple of months. This quarter it is expected at 7 million so the total subscribers would stand at 418 million.

The average revenue per user (ARPU) is expected to sharply come down to 7 percent and that is due to the removal of the interconnect charges effective January 1st.

CNBC-TV18 poll is expecting a revenue decline of 3.7 percent. Profits could be slightly higher at about 4 percent owing to an improvement in margins.

Disclosure: RIL, the promoter of Reliance Jio, also controls Network18, the parent company of CNBCTV18.com.

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Marico Q4 net profit rises 14% to Rs 199 crore; Revenue up 34.5%; Domestic volume growth at 25%

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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FMCG major Marico posted a net profit of Rs 227 crore in the fourth quarter fiscal 2021, registering a growth of 14.1 percent from Rs 199 crore in the year-ago quarter.

The company’s revenue from operations during Q4FY21 rose 34.5 percent to Rs 2,012 crore from Rs 1,496 crore, YoY. The revenue growth was backed by robust volume growth of 25 percent in the domestic business and constant currency growth of 23 percent in the international business.

Domestic volume growth beat CNBC-TV18 analysts’ poll estimates of 16-18 percent.

Marico reported a one-time loss of Rs 19 crore in Q4FY21.

“Gross margin was down 517 bps owing to the severe input cost pressure, as pricing interventions in the core portfolios were not commensurate to the inflation,” the company said in a regulatory filing.

EBITDA increased 13.1 per cent to Rs 319 crore from Rs 282 crore, while EBITDA margin declined by 300 bps to 15.9 percent from 18.9 percent.

Parachute Rigids grew 29 percent in volumes, albeit on a low base, undeterred by price hikes and pullback of consumer offers to counter a part of the input cost push, Marico said.

Value Added Hair Oils grew 22 percent in volumes with all of the key brands clocking double-digit growth. The company estimates steady market share gains in the overall hair oils category.

The Premium Personal Care ended with a modest dip in Q4 as growth in Serums was more than offset by the decline in Male Grooming.

In the International business, Bangladesh clocked 20 percent constant currency growth. South East Asia also reverted to positive territory with 13 percent constant currency growth. MENA and South Africa also gained on a low base, the company said.

At 1:55 pm, the shares of Marico were trading 1.06 percent lower at Rs 405.60 apiece on the BSE.

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Should investors buy, sell or hold Ambuja Cements after Q1 earnings?

KV Prasad Jun 13, 2022, 06:35 AM IST (Published)

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Shares of Ambuja Cements rose after the cement company reported a 71 percent YoY rise in net profit at Rs 947.21 crore during the quarter ended March 2021 led by strong volume growth and lower operating costs.

The company’s consolidated net sales during the quarter increased 23 percent to Rs 4,213 crore from Rs 3,433 crore, YoY. Special products volume grew at 82 percent.

On a standalone basis, the company’s net profit rose 67 percent YoY to Rs 665 crore.

The company follows January-December financial year.

Here’s what brokerages have to say on Ambuja Cement’s stock and Q1CY21 earnings:

CLSA

With capacity utilisation at 96 percent, ramp-up of new capacity is key for future volume growth. While the earnings are positive, concerns about rising Covid-19 cases and market share progression (despite Marwar Mundwa expansion) could also weigh on stock reaction, CLSA said.

CLSA maintains its Underperform rating and raised the target price to Rs 331 per share from Rs 320 earlier.

Morgan Stanley

The brokerage maintained an Overweight call with a target price of Rs 370 per share.

Strong execution on costs came as a big positive surprise. Despite weak pricing for CY21, we expect the company to maintain margin, Morgan Stanley said.

It is of the view that the company has the potential to improve margin in CY22 and close the gap with peers and believes Ambuja Cements is a re-rating candidate.

Jefferies

Jefferies maintained a buy call with a target price of Rs 360 per share. Volume growth and realisation were in line with estimates. It raises EPS estimate by 11-16 percent.

Emkay Global 

We maintain our CY21-22 estimates, even as we note there may be some upside risk to estimates, depending on the sustainability in cost savings. We have a Buy rating with a DCF-based Jun’22E TP of Rs 350 (including Rs 97 from 50 percent stake in ACC), implying standalone business forward EV/E of 12.5x (June 22E).

HDFC Securities

Over the next two years, Ambuja Cements” volume growth and thus profitability will benefit from its Marwar Mundwa project expansion comprising of greenfield integrated plant with 3mnMT clinkerisation and 1.8mnMT cement grinding and low-cost WHRS and solar power expansions in several locations, HDFC Securities said.

It maintains a Buy rating with an unchanged SOTP-based target price of Rs 358 per share.

ICICI Direct

Factoring in better profitability, ICICI Direct raises CY21-CY22E EBITDA by 4-8 percent and EPS by 5-11 percent. With improving profitability and return ratios, it also raised target multiple for standalone entity to 10 years historical average of 12x EV/E (earlier 10x) and raised target price to Rs 375 per share from Rs 330 earlier. The brokerage maintained a buy call.

YES Securities

Although realizations were in line with our estimates, stringent control on fixed costs along with improvement in operating efficiencies on freight and optimization of sales mix resulted into outperformance on EBITDA level.

We assign an EV/EBITDA multiple of 13x to its standalone business on CY22E and 20 percent holdco discount to its stake in ACC. Accordingly, we arrive at a TP of Rs 355 for Ambuja, translating into 13 percent upside. We have an ADD rating on the stock, the brokerage said.

At 1:35 am, the shares of Ambuja Cements were trading 0.91 percent lower at Rs 311.15 apiece on the BSE.

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KV Prasad Journo follow politics, process in Parliament and US Congress. Former Congressional APSA-Fulbright Fellow